This volume brings together some of the lost important essays written over the last two decades by one of India's most distinguished social scientists. They focus upon the relationship between various forms of inequality and distinction (race, caste, tribe, ethnicity and gender) and on concepts of the person; on the relationship between the values of equality and individualism; and on the ambivalent role of the modern Indian state as the guuarantor of these values.

This volume brings together some of the lost important essays written over the last two decades by one of India's most distinguished social scientists. They focus upon the relationship between various forms of inequality and distinction (race, caste, tribe, ethnicity and gender) and on concepts of the person; on the relationship between the values of equality and individualism; and on the ambivalent role of the modern Indian state as the guuarantor of these values.